North Korea Slams South’s Efforts to Block Online Propaganda

North Korea doesn’t let its citizens have computers or access to the Internet. But that hasn’t stopped it from complaining about South Korea’s attempts to block North Korean propaganda videos on YouTube and messages on Facebook and Twitter.

Associated Press

North Korea’s Kim Jong Il

Uriminzokkiri, a North Korea-affiliated Web site run from a bank in Shenyang, China, has garnered worldwide headlines over the past month as it began using prominent social networking tools to draw more attention to its content, which routinely praises the North’s authoritarian regime and lambastes the U.S., South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s government, which for decades has controlled mail, phone and other communication with the North, extended its oversight to Uriminzokkiri’s new accounts on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. That prompted the website to post a notice on Saturday criticizing Seoul for censorship, without mentioning that Pyongyang engages in much more far-reaching censorship.

“It is clear that the Lee Myung-bak administration is a group of traitors against unification, and does not want to improve inter-Korean relations or even wish for dialogue and cooperation,” Uriminzokkiri said, citing the name of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Since nearly all of the content on the Web site is in the Korean language, officials in South Korea believe it is mainly targeted at South Koreans.

The Korea Communications Commission, which governs telecommunications in South Korea, says the Uriminzokkiri Web site has “content that praises, promotes and glorifies” the North and has “illegal information” as defined by the South’s National Security Law.